It’s Friday, and many of us here on the East Coast will be digging ourselves out of the latest winter snowstorm. Our thoughts go out to any of you who may be stuck without power in this harsh winter weather.

In this morning’s private equity news, our own Ted Bunker continues his coverage of the unfolding allegations around GPB Capital Holdings. As more details emerge, some investors are questioning why it took the Securities and Exchange Commission so long to move on the firm.

Preeti Singh delves into one limited partner’s efforts to contend with the impact the past year’s robust public stock markets has had on its private-equity portfolio’s public stock exposure.

Meanwhile, IBM is preparing a sale of its Watson Health unit. And KKR executive Pete Stavros is on a mission to get more stock of industrial and manufacturing companies into the hands of their workers. 

Stay safe this weekend and read on for more details on these and more stories ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission recently moved to install an outside monitor to oversee private-equity firm GPB Capital Holdings LLC, but as WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Ted Bunker writes, some of GPB’s investors and their lawyers are wondering what took so long. GPB Capital’s regulatory filings show that the SEC began probing the New York firm as early as 2018.

IBM is exploring a potential sale of its IBM Watson Health business, according to people familiar with the matter, as the technology giant’s new chief executive moves to streamline the company and become more competitive in cloud computing. As Laura Cooper and Cara Lombardo report for The Wall Street Journal. IBM is studying alternatives for the unit that could include a sale to a private-equity firm or industry player or a merger with a blank-check company, the people said. The unit, which employs artificial intelligence to help hospitals, insurers and drugmakers manage their data, has roughly $1 billion in annual revenue and isn’t currently profitable, the people said.

Strong stock market performance has left Alaska Permanent Fund Corp.’s private-equity and special-situations portfolio with more public company shares than it bargained for, WSJ Pro Private Equity’s Preeti Singh reports. The state-owned corporation, which manages money from state oil and mineral royalties among other public funds, has temporarily waived the 20% limit that public securities can represent within its private-equity and special-situations portfolios as the boom in initial public offerings of private-equity backed companies continues.

Pete Stavros, co-head of private equity for the Americas at KKR & Co., has spent the bulk of his career studying and promoting the benefits of awarding stock to factory workers and other hourly wage earners, Miriam Gottfried writes for WSJ. He has implemented programs to make equity awards and provide financial-literacy training at the industrial companies the firm owns, including Ingersoll Rand Inc., a pump and compressor maker, formed in 2020 through a roughly $9 billion merger with Gardner Denver Holdings Inc., a KKR investment. Mr. Stavros, 46 years old, is now raising money to launch a nonprofit he plans to call the Center for Shared Ownership. 

ZelnickMedia Corp., the private-equity firm set up by media and gaming company executive Strauss Zelnick, has acquired comedy theater operator The Second City, whose alumni have populated Saturday Night Live since its beginnings and include such stars as Tina Fey, Mike Myers and John Belushi. Founded in 1959, the Chicago-based company operates theaters in the Windy City as well as Toronto and Hollywood and has thousands of students learning the skills of stand-up comedy and improvisation.

Tiger Global Management and Bond Capital Management led a $150 million investment in autonomous mobile robot maker Locus Robotics in a deal that gives it a valuation of roughly $1 billion. The Wilmington, Mass.-based company’s products are used in warehouses that support online commerce and other activities. The Series E investment is expected to drive further expansion of the business.

Vance Street Capital said it is combining three companies to form a new holding company in the firm’s third fund that will be called Spectra A&D Holdings. Spectra, which will design and manufacture avionics and electronics technology used in the aerospace and defense technology markets, is being created through the merger of Calculex Inc., Argon Corporation and FDS Avionics Corp.

New Heritage Capital is backing software-as-a-service company FMS Solutions Holdings LLC. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., business caters to independent grocers and provides payroll-processing and other back-office services.

Carlyle Group Inc. is investing $200 million in Korean transportation services company Kakao Mobility. The Pangyo, South Korea-based business has 28 million registered users and provides access to electric bicycles, taxi-hailing, parking and navigation services. The private-equity firm in Washington is investing through its Carlyle Asia Partners V fund.

Healthcare focused private-equity firm RoundTable Healthcare Partners has acquired DDS Lab, a Tampa, Fla.-based dental laboratory that offers fixed crown and bridge, removable, implant and orthodontic products.

Westcap Mgt. Ltd., a Canadian investment firm, said it is acquiring publicly traded agricultural equipment company Rocky Mountain Equipment, which has traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange since 2007.

Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.

A special-purpose acquisition company led by executives of growth equity investment firm HighCape Capital has agreed to purchase biotechnology startup Quantum-Si Inc. in a deal that gives the Guilford, Conn.-based business an equity value of $1.46 billion, Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires. HighCape Capital Acquisition Corp., led by HighCape Capital co-founders Kevin Rakin and Matt Zuga, raised about $115 million in an initial public offering last year. A $425 million private placement of the SPAC’s shares at $10 each will help finance the deal. Quantum-Si’s business centers on a proprietary next-generation, semiconductor-based protein-sequencing platform.

A blank-check company led by senior executives from Hepco Capital Management has agreed to acquire and take public satellite imagery and data analytics company BlackSky Holdings Inc., Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The deal with Osprey Technology Acquisition Corp., the special-purpose acquisition company, gives BlackSky a pro forma equity value of nearly $1.5 billion. Founded in 2014, the  Herndon, Va., company operates five high-resolution small satellites that monitor global events and activities, and a software system that translates data, providing enhanced situational awareness for commercial and government customers.

A blank-check company led by Xiaoma (Sherman) Lu,  an East Stone Capital Ltd. founding partner, has agreed to combine with JHD Holdings (Cayman) Ltd., which operates a merchant enablement services platform in smaller cities in China. Following the deal with East Stone Acquisition Corp. special-purpose acquisition company, the newly public company will operate as JHD Technologies Ltd., according to a news release. The transaction will give the acquired business an equity value of about $1 billion. The East Stone SPAC raised about $138 million through an initial public offering last year. 

KKR & Co. has sold five U.K. student housing properties to strategic buyer Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC for £291 million, or about $406.7 million. The properties, including those under development, comprise 2,163 living units in London, Glasgow, Coventry and Bristol. KKR initially acquired the projects in 2018.

Hamilton Lane Inc. has raised at least $579 million so far for its latest credit fund, Hamilton Lane Strategic Opportunities Fund VI (Series 2020) LP, and related parallel vehicles, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The $579 million amount indicated in the filing puts the fund more than three-quarters of the way toward the more than $760 million that Hamilton Lane raised for the fund’s predecessor in 2019.

Life-sciences investor Adjuvant Capital has raised $300 million for a fund focused on investing in medical innovations targeting historically marginalized public health issues. The New York firm began raising the pool in 2019 and is investing in companies targeting diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis as well as parasitic conditions such as hookworm. Participants in the fund include charitable foundations and drug makers.

Advent Life Sciences has closed two new funds with commitments totalling $215 million, sister publication Private Equity News reports. One of the funds, Advent Life Sciences Fund III, is the firm’s third dedicated life sciences venture capital fund. Meanwhile, the Advent-Harrington Impact Fund is a new type of fund raised in collaboration with the Harrington Discovery Institute to translate innovative drug discoveries into treatments for patients.

Commonfund Capital is seeking $100 million for Commonfund Capital Co-Investment Opportunities III LP, and has raised $52.4 million so far toward that goal, according to a regulatory filing.

Battery Ventures said it raised $400 million for Battery Ventures Select Fund I LP to provide additional capital to a small group of late-stage companies in the firm’s portfolio.

Clayton Dubilier & Rice said it has tapped John Stroup, executive chairman of networking and cable connectivity product manufacturer Belden, Inc., as an operating advisor to the private-equity firm’s funds.

Vista Equity Partners has brought in veteran software industry executive Thomas E. Hogan as an operating managing director for the firm’s flagship strategy. Mr. Hogan was most recently chairman and chief executive of banking software company Kony Inc., which was acquired by Geneva-based Temenos AG in September 2019. Vista invests in middle-market and larger companies in the software, data and technology-enabled business sectors through its flagship strategy and collected about $16 billion for its seventh such fund before closing it in 2019.

Trilantic North America has promoted Giulianna Ruiz, its general counsel and chief compliance officer, to partner, and elevated Christopher Murphy to partner of business development from principal. The New York firm also named Kristin DePlatchett as a partner and head of investor relations. She joins from Kraken Capital, which she founded and led as managing partner.

Private-credit firm Brightwood Capital has promoted Russell Zomback to chief financial officer, Mike Katz to managing director, investments, and Chris Malone to director, investments. Mr. Zomback joined the firm in 2011, while Messrs. Katz and Malone came aboard in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Brightwood manages about $4 billion in investor capital.

Carlyle Group Inc. withdrew from the bidding for U.K. aviation-support-services company Signature Aviation PLC, Adriano Marchese writes for DowJones Newswires. In early January, Signature Aviation said it was approached by the firm’s Carlyle Investment Management unit for a potential takeover of the company. However, Signature later agreed to an all-cash offer worth $4.73 billion from a group that includes Global Infrastructure Partners, Blackstone Group Inc. and Cascade Investment LLC, the family office of Bill Gates. The U.K. company had other suitors as well.

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Ted Bunker; Laura Cooper; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; Preeti Singh; Chitra Vemuri.

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